"I loved it," James said. "What I loved was that I was still driving a 458, which is already my favourite car. But it was as if someone had gone over my sensory receptors with a whetstone and sharpened them up a bit."

Since then, the 597bhp Speciale has been in hibernation. But as soon as spring sprung, we dusted the mid-engined Ferrari down and headed for a low-key tourist destination - and hippie hang-out - 12 miles off the mainland port of Piombino in the Tyrrhenian Sea: Elba.

It was the perfect place to stretch out the Speciale's tuned V8, sublime chassis and trick new software. It was also a fine destination for TG snapper Justin Leighton to take some pretty pictures.

So if you fancy decorating your desktop with a Prancing Horse running free round Napoleon's old stomping ground, scroll through the pics, click the size that takes your fancy and add it to your computery devices background.